The indifferent Italian, in which language he spoke to his
Cicerone, and the latter's still more imperfect Turkish, made it
difficult for the shopkeeper to understand their wishes, and as this
seemed to vex the stranger, I addressed him in English, offering to
interpret for him. When his Lordship thus discovered me to be an
Englishman, he shook me cordially by the hand, and assured me, with
some warmth in his manner, that he always felt great pleasure when he
met with a countryman abroad. His purchase and my bargain being
completed, we walked out together, and rambled about the streets, in
several of which I had the pleasure of directing his attention to some
of the most remarkable curiosities in Constantinople. The peculiar
circumstances under which our acquaintance took place, established
between us, in one day, a certain degree of intimacy, which two or
three years' frequenting each other's company in England would most
likely not have accomplished. I frequently addressed him by his name,
but he did not think of enquiring how I came to learn it, nor of
asking mine. His Lordship had not yet laid the foundation of that
literary renown which he afterwards acquired; on the contrary, he was
only known as the author of his Hours of Idleness; and the severity
with which the Edinburgh Reviewers had criticised that production was
still fresh in every English reader's recollection. I could not,
therefore, be supposed to seek his acquaintance from any of those
motives of vanity which have actuated so many others since: but it was
natural that, after our accidental rencontre, and all that passed
between us on that occasion, I should, on meeting him in the course of
the same week at dinner at the English ambassador's, have requested
one of the secretaries, who was intimately acquainted with him, to
introduce me to him in regular form.
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